A journalist from Rekord was unlawfully detained by Tshwane metro police on Thursday morning, merely for taking photos in a public area.
Eliot Mahlase (24) saw a metro police officer arresting a man for reckless driving and was taking pictures for the newspaper when he was also taken into custody.
“I wasn’t scared at the time, but I couldn’t understand why I was being forced into a police van,” Mahlase said.
“They wanted to put me in the back if the police van, but I said I was not a criminal. They then took my phone, which I had used to take a few pictures for work and put me in the front of the police vehicle.”
A witness, Ria David, said she could not believe her eyes when she saw Mahlase being detained.
“I saw them arrest the bystander who took pictures and I could not believe my eyes. He didn’t do anything wrong,” David said.
Mahlase had an extra phone with him, which he used to alert the deputy editor of the Rekord, Corné van Zyl.
Mahlase was taken to the Garsfontein police station, where he was asked to provide a form of identification and was told to delete the photos he had taken at the scene.
After doing so, he was released as the metro police could provide no reason for his detention.
Van Zyl said: “This is completely unacceptable. They had no right to detain him for taking a photo in a public space. It is a violation of our right to free speech. They cannot arrest people for taking pictures for a news publication.”
Ben Rootman, general Manager of the National Press Club in Pretoria, expressed outrage at the conduct of the metro police.
“This is inexcusable. The media should never be prevented from doing their job. We are shocked to learn about this incident.”
When Mahlase attempted to open a case of unlawful arrest, the Garsfontein police station refused to assist him.
David, who rushed to the Garsfontein police station to lay a complaint against Tshwane metro police for the arrest of an innocent bystander, was also refused help by the police.
The executive director of the Tshwane metro police Console Tleane confirmed the episode that involved the arresting of a motorist for failing to obey the instructions of police officers, but denied that any journalist was arrested.
“An arrest entails the accosting, reading of rights; and incarceration of a suspect. None of these took place. Therefore there was simply no arrest,” he said.
“The Tshwane metro police’s escort team was not using a motor vehicle on the occasion of the above incident, they were only using motorcycles. So, it is factually incorrect to claim that the journalist was taken into a metro police van, even if there was an arrest.”
Tleane gave this comment despite Mahlase confirming his unlawful arrest, Van Zyl picking him up at the Garsfontein police station and Rekord possessing photographic evidence of marked Tshwane metro police vehicles present on the scene of the arrest.
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